For China to lift the ban on consoles, though, all seven ministries that issued the ban have to approve it

After banning video game consoles for over a decade, China is considering a lift. The consideration came after Sony's PlayStation 3 obtained a quality certification from a safety standards body in China late last year.

"We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market," said the China Daily as it quoted an unnamed source from the Ministry of Culture.

For China to lift the ban on consoles, though, all seven ministries that issued the ban have to approve it.

China banned video game consoles in 2000 in an effort to protect the physical and mental development of children in the country. However, it seems a bit odd to keep the ban on video game consoles when mobile and online gaming remains so prevalent in China.

Now would be a particularly good time for a lift on the console ban, considering the number of new devices expected to be released by the likes of Microsoft and Sony. Sony recently said the PlayStation 4 unveil could come in May 2013 (or sooner) with specs like a custom chip based on AMD's A8-3850, a quad-core 2.9GHz processor and a 1GHz graphics card with 1GB memory.

Hardware details for the next-generation Xbox console, which is expected to launch later this year, have also leaked. Some specs include a processor with x64 architecture and eight cores running at 1.6 GHz; a next-generation Xbox GPU, consisting of a custom D3D 11.1 class unit running at 800 MHz with 12 shader cores and 768 total threads; 8 GB of DDR3 RAM; 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM; a 6x Blu-ray drive; gigabit Ethernet; Wi-Fi; Wi-Fi Direct; a Kinect multichannel echo cancellation hardware chip, and cryptography engines for encrypting and decrypting content.

Because no one cares developing anything comparable exclusively on PC. Blame it on developers, not on gamers.

A friend of mine, for example, likes fighting games,and has PS3 almost exclusively for that. Make decent port of DOA, Tekken, Soul Blade, Virtua Fighter... on a PC, and he'll happily get rid of console and be 100% PC gamer again.

Fighting games are nowhere complex as likes of BF3, FC3... small map, 2 characters. Port doesn't even have to be 100% optimized to work fine.

Negative, Ghostrider. I DO blame it on gamers, because they're the ones voting with their wallets. Gamers have collectively voiced that they prefer re-hashed, warmed-over remakes of COD/BF/Madden, and would much rather shell out $50 for last year's game with a new layer of paint.

I also blame hardware developers--specifically display manufacturers. 1080p is the limit for 99% of all laptops on the market, and it's not much better for desktops (until you're > 24" displays). Even if a PC gamer wanted a better graphic experience, the market has hamstrung that.

Developers are simply opportunists (greedy though they may be *Cough* EA, Activision, etc). There is a market & there is demand. Developers figured out they can make a quick buck faster by just catering to certain tastes.

It's not much different than how hollywood keeps remaking the same crap, big-budget movies (how many 3-musketeers movies are there now)? Indy movies may be much more compelling and intriguing, but they move less profit.

p.s.If you don't like how it is, then tell your friends to STOP gaming on consoles. The market will follow trends.